The Lower Depths (1957)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Ganjiro Nakamada

Adapted from a play by Maxim Gorky and following the adventures of a boarding home's odd residents, especially the love triangle that develops between... Read more

Rhapsody In August (1991)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Sachiko Murase, Richard Gere, Hisashi Igawa

This moving drama, set in Nagasaki, explores the trauma of World War II and the after-effects of the atomic bomb. Four children on a visit to their Gr... Read more

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1991)

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Starring: Tomoroh Taguchi, Nobu Kanaoka, Shinya Tsukamoto

More of a companion piece to "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" than a sequel, "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer" sees director Shinya Tsukamoto's disturbing vision of a wo... Read more

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

Director: Seijun Suzuki

Starring: Tetsuya Watari, Hideaki Nitani, Chieko Matsubara

This prime slice of Japanese pulp fiction has Tetsu, a yakuza trying to go straight, roaming the land in his pastel blue suit via a succession of colo... Read more

Ninja Scroll (1993)

Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Ultra-violent anime in which the Koga Ninja team investigates a mysterious village and soon discover the village wells were poisoned by the Eight Devi... Read more

Kamikaze Taxi (1995)

Director: Masato Harada

Starring: Reiko Kataoka, Kazuya Takahashi, Koji Yakusho

Part crime thriller, part road movie and part social polemic, writer/director Masato Harada's drama follows Yakuza underling Tatsuo (Kazuya Takahashi)... Read more

Violent Cop (1989)

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Haku Ryu

Sex, violence, and the dark world of the yakuza provide the basis of this Japanese thriller. 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano plays a rogue cop who employs his o... Read more

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

Director: Kinji Fukasaku, Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda

Starring: Martin Balsam, Jason Robards, Soh Yamamura, Joseph Cotten, Tatsuya Mihashi, E G...

This $25 million epic collaboration faithfully recreates the events leading up to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour. An insightful and well-crafted Wor... Read more

Shogun Assassin (1981)

Director: Kenji Misumi, Robert Houston

Starring: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Masahiro Tomikawa

A stunning visual ballet of violence and bloodletting that tells the tale of a samurai warrior who travels across the countryside pushing his young so... Read more

Monkey: Season 1, Episodes 1-13 (1978)

Director: Yusuke Watanabe

Starring: Shiro Kishibe, Toshiyuki Nishida, Masaaki Sakai, Masako Natsume

A surreal blend of Oriental fable, Kung Fu actions, Buddhist philosophy and slapstick comedy are the ingredients of this wonderfully dubbed 70's class... Read more